Africa Aid / Culture - lecture with Anders Bronken

"From joke to school"

The game of chance has been an important key word for the work Elverum Folkehøgskole's development projects in Uganda. Whether it concerns the school facility, agriculture, the tourist / cultural project or football. An important man for the football project is Anders Bronken. After 16 months working at the embassy in Kampala, Anders came to Afrika-Bistand / Safari with his lecture «From Jokes to school».

The story starts already in 2007. Elverum Handball beat Drammen HK for the first time and thus the sports journalist Bronken lost a bet - and had to go from Elverum to Drammen in February. Lots of media attention made the sponsors stand in line to support Anders financially on the six-day trip.
He had a great desire to perhaps be able to make a school for poor children somewhere, and that was the purpose of the money that came in -175 NOK. He contacted several of the large aid organizations, but in the end it was Elverum Folk High School that showed the greatest ability to cooperate. Afrika-Bistand / safari also collected around 000 NOK and together with Anders we opened a new Primary School in 200 at our existing school facility.

This was the start of a close and good collaboration that was like an inverted pyramid: More and more people felt close to our small controllable project. The fact that a school was going to run its own aid project in Kasese, Uganda was exciting for our students formation.

After Anders was involved as a tour guide for a few years, we decided to create our own football facilities with its own club and a development program for children and young people in the Kasese District. Anders used his time in football and all his contacts to create a solid facility that was based on experiences from the then Ministry of Culture and the Football Association of Norway.

Considerations of rainy season and periods of drought meant that we got one of the best gravel dust paths in Uganda. The undersigned challenged Anders to take a school year in Kasese to realize this football dream. Today this is a facility and a club that is noticed in FUFA (Federation of Uganda Football Associations). Elverum Folk High School collects over half a million Norwegian kroner every year. Salaries for 6 people in SC Bronken are some of the fixed support amounts - until we find more ways to get local sponsors and sources of income. As of today, there are over 1000 kids who take part in the football program where Anders Bronken has given coaching courses to about thirty women and men. The kids participate in league games and a top was when we sent three teams to the East African Cup in Tanzania in the summer of 2019.

All this has led to us having a great collaboration with Elverum football (employer for Bronken in recent years) and Elverum handball. Costumes and equipment that are difficult to obtain reasonably in Uganda have been shipped to Uganda for the past eight years. It was a happy group of Africans who listened to Anders' lecture and many understood the value of achieving a goal, having a positive attitude and respect for the "game of chance".

Elverum Folk High School is proud of what we have achieved Case and that we spend 100% of funds raised on the projects. read more about Africa Aid / Safari here.

-Geir Sample

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